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Puli Upma

Puli upma is one of the trademark recipe of my paternal grandmother. It is prepared with rice flour and tamarind (of course) and served with mor milagai (sun-dried chillies). It is a spicy and a tangy upma. This is also called as Thavittu upma.

In Kannada we call this as huri uppitu or huri hittu. Colloquially when someone asks why did you prepare for dinner they just say hittu huride (fried the flour is the exact transalation) but it refers to this upma. It does consume little extra oil and also time-consuming when compared to other upma. The major thing with this upma is you need to keep breaking the rice flour lumps and make it coarse basically from Dough to cornmeal consistency. But as the saying goes “No pain No gain” you need some time for this yummy recipe.

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 1.5 cups

Tamarind Paste – 3 tbsps

Mor Milagai – 4

Water – 1 cup + 1/4 cup (if required)

Salt – 1 tsp

Oil – 1 tbsps + 3 tbsps

Mustard seeds – 2 tsps

Curry leaves – 1 strand

Urad dal – 2 tsps

Turmeric Powder – 1/2 tsp

Hing – 1 tsp

Steps:

Add salt, turmeric powder and hing to the rice flour.

Mix the 3 tbsps of tamarind paste to 1 cup of water.

Slow add this water to the rice flour and mix well and form thick dough.

Heat the kadai and add oil.

Once the oil is hot add mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves.

As they start to crackle add dough and start breaking it slowly.

Initially it will be big lumps but keep stirring and break the dough. Instead of a ladle my grandma used to use the coconut stick from a fresh coconut leaf. (Advantage of having coconut tree in the backyard) I don’t have it year so I used the appe pan stick for break it. Here is my appe pan stick.

During the breaking process add the remaining 2 tbsps of oil and if required add more. (We are frying the upma right?)

The rice flour will start to absorb the oil and slowly it will start to brown up. As it starts to absorb the oil the raw taste goes and the color will change.

If you want crispier upma, add more oil and cook it medium flame. I usually prefer it before it turns brown.

Instructions

Slow add this water to the rice flour and mix well and form thick dough.

Heat the kadai and add oil.

Once the oil is hot add mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves.

As they start to crackle add dough and start breaking it slowly.

Initially it will be big lumps but keep stirring and break the dough. Instead of a ladle my grandma used to use the coconut stick from a fresh coconut leaf. (Advantage of having coconut tree in the backyard) I don’t have it year so I used the appe pan stick for break it. Here is my appe pan stick.

During the breaking process add the remaining 2 tbsps of oil and if required add more. (We are frying the upma right?)

The rice flour will start to absorb the oil and slowly it will start to brown up. As it starts to absorb the oil the raw taste goes and the color will change.

If you want crispier upma, add more oil and cook it medium flame. I usually prefer it before it turns brown.

Now in a separate kadai heat 1 tbsp of oil and fry the mor milagai.

Crush them and add this to the upma and mix well.

That’s it. Puli upma is ready.

Notes

During the tadka you can fry the mor milagai and crush them up or you can do it towards the end like I did.